A Taste Of The City

An advisor takes a big bite out of life-and builds a barbecue business.

Cooking the books is almost always not advisable,
but for James L. Budros, cooking and balancing the books go splendidly
together. In fact cooking, preferably the barbecue variety, and
financial planning are two of several passions that illuminate Budros'
life.
A successful fee-only financial planner who has no
intention of giving up his day job, Budros has won numerous awards,
such as being named more than once as one of the best financial
advisors in the United States by Worth magazine. At the same time,
barbecue cooking, his family, fly fishing and driving Porches are
interests that are almost as important to this man, who describes
himself as "sort of an enthusiastic guy."
As a founding partner in the financial planning firm
of Budros, Ruhlin & Roe in Columbus, Ohio, Budros cooked as a hobby
most of his life and then got into competitive barbecuing that involved
road trips with friends to the barbecue capitals of the country. "I
always said I would never get involved in the restaurant business,"
Budros now says. "In fact, if I did that full time, it would involve a
lot more time than financial planning."
Never say never. Although Budros had avoided the
business because he was concerned about the time commitment, he still
yearned for a barbecue restaurant. And after he met Rick Malir, another
barbecue lover, opening one suddenly seemed like the right thing to do.
Budros, Malir and two other partners opened City Barbeque in Columbus
in December 1999, and quickly after opened a second location. There are
now six restaurants in or near Columbus, and two new operator-owned
franchises that will open in Westchester and Toledo, Ohio, this summer,
all adhering to the same competition-level barbecuing standards.
Although Budros does not take an active part in operating the
restaurants, the two occupations feed off of each other.
"The existence of the restaurants has given rise to
a lot of metaphors we use when discussing our clients and their
financial plans," says Peggy Ruhlin, the chief operating officer for
the firm. "When we are looking for a good mutual funds manager, we say
we like it when they eat their own cooking, meaning invest in their own
funds. We also ask if someone wants to cook or just measure, meaning do
you want to be slaves to a recipe or do you want to be innovative."
At the same time, the successful financial planning
business rubs off on the restaurants. "When we first opened we got more
publicity before we opened than anyone could imagine," Budros
remembers. "It was all based on our good relationship with the
community of Columbus. We were well known for our barbecue and for our
charity work. The head restaurant reviewers from the newspapers wanted
pictures, and there were three big articles even before we opened."
City Barbeque has been judged one of Columbus's
top-ten casual restaurants, as well as being named the number one new
restaurant in Columbus by local radio when it opened. Before he opened
the restaurant, Budros and his friends won the Kansas City American
Royal Barbecue Championship, one of the top competitions in the
country, beating out 450 competitors. The barbecue wizards at the
restaurants now qualify as judges. The secret, according to Malir, who
quit a job at John Deere to take over the financial and operating part
of the restaurant business, is in the smoking more than in the sauce.
"Although Jim and I met over a jar of sauce," he adds.
Budros and Malir met after a financial planner
working for Budros went to a party attended by Malir. She took along a
jar of barbecue sauce made by Budros, which Malir tasted at the party,
and the rest, as they say, is history. Malir quit his corporate job at
John Deere, and Frank Pizzo, who was opening and managing Burger King
franchises, was brought in to run the cooking side of the restaurants.
The pair takes care of the day-to-day operations of the restaurants and
the expansions.
On the investing side, Budros was joined by Mike
Taylor, a lawyer who had sometimes shared client referrals with the
financial planning firm, and Dr. John Kean, an orthopedic surgeon and
Budros' neighbor. Taylor, Kean and Budros and a few other friends are
part of the traveling troop that tours the country at times, looking
for good barbecue or competing in cook-offs.
Although he loved to cook and loved barbecue, "I always turned my back
on the restaurant business until I met Rick Malir," Budros now says.
"Owning the restaurants adds a change of pace to our
professional lives," says Taylor. "It adds a lot of depth to your
advice for a client if you also happen to be the owner of a business
totally different from your main profession. In turn, you can bring a
different perspective to the restaurant business. Jim and I have both
seen businesses fail, so we bring safeguards to the company. It makes a
nice marriage."
Budros agrees, although he acknowledges he, Taylor
and Kean have less at stake than the other two partners who are running
the restaurants. "We never expected this amount of success," Budros
says. "Mike, John and I just wanted a joint we could go to and have
barbecue and be proud of. Rick and Frank quit their jobs and put all
their money on the line, so their interests are different. But because
of their expertise, they made it into what they expected."
Both businesses have been extremely successful.
Budros, Ruhlin and Roe, Budros' full-time employer, now has $750
million under management and 28 employees. One of the latest to join
the firm, John Schuman, has not been made partner as yet, but is
expected to in the near future. At the same time, the restaurant
business now has 150 employees and could accelerate its expansion pace
if it chose to.
Budros says he feels all of his varied interests
play into his financial planning career. "Because of all the hobbies I
have, it comes through to the client that I am a diversified guy.
People like to do business with people who are thinkers, with positive
people. When clients come in, we can have a relationship that is not as
hard-lined or sterile as planning and investment.
"I often tell clients they pay me to think. They
must trust what we do, because many times people come in here, while
the are paying us, and they want to spend their time telling us about
their grandchildren, so they must like what we are doing for their
financial planning," Budros reasons. "It is always good if you
recognize that people have interests beyond money and get to know them
as people."
The financial advisor also spends some of his
nonplanning time teaching cooking. He has been a member of the
Corporation of the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, N.Y.,
has been a restaurant reviewer, had his own radio program and helped
coordinate the ZAGAT survey of Ohio restaurants.
Budros' passion for life has spilled over to his two
adult children, both of whom moved away from home for a time and then
recently returned to Columbus. Rivaling his father's success with City
Barbeque, Budros' son, Spencer, a pastry chef, recently opened a bakery
in Columbus called Pistachio. The high-end bakery has enjoyed the same
type of early publicity that accompanied the opening of City Barbeque.
His daughter, Anne Budros Fletcher, moved back to
Columbus, but planned to continue her job as a managing staffer at
Asset Planning Corp. in Knoxville, Tenn., by long distance. However,
she was so smitten with her brother's Pistachio that she quit her job
to take over the accounting for the bakery.
She has one child and another on the way. "My wife,
Susan, and I are involved in all of it," says Budros. "I am the chief
cheerleader for Pistachio."
A secret to balancing his many activities is to
never say he is too busy to do something. Budros and his barbecue
friends still take three- and four-day trips to barbecue festivals
throughout the country, which they describe as eating extravaganzas
that include hitting as many as 19 restaurants.
Next year they will travel to New York City to check
out the barbecue fare and look at new smokers and other equipment. "I
doubt we will expand City Barbeque to New York, but you never know,"
Budros says.

Karen DeMasters is a freelance writer
based in New Jersey who is a regular contributor to The New York Times
and various business publications.